Some of the container terminals in the Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach shut down their truck gates for several hours on Monday and will do so other days this week as well. “It’s our understanding that some terminals are closing their terminals for some shifts this week due to post Lunar New Year low volumes,” said Phillip Sanfield, a spokesman for the Port of Los Angeles.

Port terminal operator DP World has acquired the Peru-based logistics services provider Cosmos Agencia Maritima S.A.C. (CAM) for $315.7 million, the company said in a statement Sunday. According to DP World, CAM owns a fully integrated logistics service business that operates under the names Neptunia S.A and Triton Transport S.A. and offers end-to-end solutions to its customers. CAM's logistics division offers an integrated platform of solutions in activities relate...

Hong Kong-based C.K. Hutchison Holdings Co.'s ports and related services division reported higher volumes, revenues, and profits for 2017 when compared with 2016, according to the company's most recent financial statements. For the full year in 2017, the the 287 port terminal berths operated by Hutchison handled 84.7 million TEUs of containerized cargo, 4 percent more than in 2016. Hutchinson's port and related services revenues stood at nearly HK$34.2 billion Hong...

The Port of Portland in Oregon processed about 314,000 vehicle imports and exports across its docks in 2017, according to the most recent data from the Pacific Northwest Port. By handling of more than 87,000 Ford vehicles last year, the port maintained its top position for West Coast port auto exports. In 2016, the port handled more than 50,000 auto exports, with the 2017 growth representing a 73 percent increase, the port authority said. The port authority attribut...

House Transportation Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee Chairman Garret Graves, R-La., on Thursday said timelines for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers water resource projects take too long, while Lt. Gen. Todd Semonite, commanding general for the Corps, told lawmakers he expects to complete five chief’s reports and recommend changes to two private sector-sponsored projects by mid-summer. Semonite said he foresees 11 more chief’s reports - which include final recommendation...

Utah’s Senate this week passed legislation to create an inland port authority. A similar bill was approved by the Utah House of Representatives on March 7. The inland port would be located north of Route 80 in the northwest quadrant of Salt Lake City. The Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development said in a press release Thursday that Gov. Gary R. Herbert has indicated his intent to sign the bill in the coming days. An inland port is “a large economic developmen...

DP World, one of the largest container terminal operators in the world, reported higher throughput, revenues and profits in 2017 when compared to 2016. Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, the chairman and chief executive officer of the Dubai-based terminal operator, said his company has plans to expand into “complementary sectors in the global supply chain.” DP World posted profits of $1.36 billion on revenues of $4.72 billion in 2017, with its terminals handling over 70 mill...

The 5,616-TEU Maersk Kensington reported a fire in a cargo hold on Thursday at 20:50 EST while en route from Salalah, Oman towards Suez, Maersk Line revealed Friday. All 26 crew members are safe and accounted for, and the fire has been contained. The Maersk Kensington is at anchor outside the Port of Salalah and is getting assistance from shore. The vessel is carrying 3,518 containers, which equates to 5,616 TEUs. Maersk said all impacted customers will...

Terminal operator Global Ports posted a net loss of $53 million in 2017 compared with a $61 million profit the year before. Terminal operator Global Ports Investments PLC posted a net loss of $53 million for the 2017 calendar year compared with a $61 million profit the year before, according to the company’s most recent financial statements. The Limassol, Cyprus-based firm, which is part owned by Maersk Group subsidiary APM Terminals, sank into the red despite an increase in to...

Container terminal operators at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are slated to meet next week to discuss changes to the current PierPass OffPeak program. PierPass charges a traffic mitigation fee (TMF) to companies that have cargo trucked to and from terminals at the two Southern California ports during “peak” hours, which are considered Monday through Friday from 3:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Empty containers, loaded containers that move in and out of terminals by...

Acting U.S. Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) Chairman Michael Khouri told House lawmakers at a hearing Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s fiscal year 2019 budget request of $27.49 million for the agency is sufficient to maintain its operations. The proposed amount provides a $264,347 bump over the fiscal year 2017 enacted budget level. The FMC is currently operating under The Continuing Appropriations Act of 2018 and the 2017 Supplemental Appropriations for Di...

The Port of Oakland handled 188,175 TEUs in February, a 7.6 percent increase from the 174,902 TEUs handled in February 2017, largely due to strong import growth. Full import container volumes were up 14.9 percent from last February, reaching 73,666 TEUs. Continuing strength in U.S. consumer spending helped drive the port's import business, but the port advised that March volumes could dip due to post-Lunar New Year factory holidays in Asia, Oakland’s primary market,...

The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) has awarded nearly $500 million in funding for 41 road, transit, maritime and rail projects under the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) program, the department said in a statement. Of those 41 projects, nine are specifically related to freight infrastructure improvements. Freight-specific projects garnered roughly 24 percent ($118 million) of the $500 million in total funds awarded, but sever...

The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach both increased container throughput in February 2018 from 12 months earlier, the Southern California ports each revealed Tuesday. The sharp increase can be attributed to Chinese New Year, also referred to as Lunar New Year, falling later this year. The Chinese New Year began Feb. 16 this year, compared to Jan. 28 last year. Shippers tend to typically move cargo ahead of the holiday, since many factories in China and other Asia...

The European Community Shipowners’ Associations (ECSA) and World Shipping Council (WSC) are asking the European Commission (EC) to simplify reporting requirements for ships calling at European ports. “Current complex, repetitive and duplicative reporting requirements not only result in productivity losses for maritime carriers and their customers but also create unnecessary workload and stress for ship crews," ECSA and WSC said in a joint press release. They said th...

In order to optimize the global supply chain, APM Terminals (APMT) needs to focus not only on the needs of the big container carriers that berth their ships at its docks, but also the needs of the thousands of beneficial cargo owners, truckers and other companies that move cargo in and out of its facilities on the landside, according to Henrik Lundgaard Pedersen, the chief commercial officer of the A.P. Moller-Maersk subsidiary. He noted that Maersk Group has said that it wants ...

The Port of Oakland on Monday released a plan for the next five years that calls for 8 percent more containerized cargo volume in Oakland by 2022. The California port, which handled 2.4 million TEU in 2017, expects to be handling 2.6 million TEU in five years. Annual passenger traffic at the agency’s Oakland International Airport should increase 12-20 percent to between 14 million and 15 million passengers. Both numbers would be all-time highs for Oakla...

Import volumes at major retail container ports in the United States grew 1.8 percent to 1.73 million TEUs in January 2018 compared with the same month a year ago, according to the latest monthly Global Port Tracker report by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Hackett Associates. On a sequential basis, U.S. container imports slipped 0.2 percent from December 2017, according to the report, as a result of annual Asian factory shutdowns for Lunar New Year. The NRF...

The Port of New Orleans is considering the Sinclair Tract in St. Bernard Parish as the potential site of a new container terminal that would more than double the port’s annual handling capacity. In Louisiana, about 100 miles upstream from where the Mississippi River meets the Gulf of Mexico, a very large potential development is picking up steam. It’s there, at the Port of New Orleans, that officials are in the early stages of developing plans to build a second container port t...

The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) revealed Friday they are resuming master contract negotiations, with the goal of finalizing terms on a contract that will keep cargo moving at Atlantic and Gulf Coast ports. Their current contract expires Sept. 30, 2018. Talks between the dockworker union and the USMX, which represents ILA employers, broke down on Dec. 6 last year over issues having to do with auto...

COSCO SHIPPING Ports Ltd. revealed Thursday that it has entered into a subscription agreement for Navis’ N4 terminal operating system (TOS) with the goal of further enhancing the efficiency of its port operations. COSCO operates and manages 269 berths at 38 ports, with 179 of those berths for containerships. The company has signed up to use Navis globally for all of its terminal operations, according to Scott Peoples, the president of the TOS business line at Navis....

U.S. transportation and logistics companies added another 15,400 jobs in February 2018, accelerating the growth seen the previous two months, according to the latest preliminary data from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The February growth figures followed revised gains of 11,800 jobs in January and 8,700 positions December 2017. Job gains in the sector during February were led by the truck transportation segment, which added 5,600 p...

The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) revealed Friday they are resuming master contract negotiations, with the goal of finalizing terms on a contract that will keep cargo moving at Atlantic and Gulf Coast ports. Their current contract expires Sept. 30, 2018. Talks between the dockworker union and the USMX, which represents ILA employers, broke down on Dec. 6 last year over issues having to do with automatio...

GE Transportation is expanding a pilot data project that seeks to digitize and harmonize disparate supply chain data flows to increase visibility, efficiency and cargo velocity to the Port of Long Beach. The launch of the second pilot project in the United States’ busiest port complex follows a successful trial run of the company’s Port Optimizer data portal at the neighboring Port of Los Angeles. Port Optimizer, a cloud-based software solution that brings tog...

The Port of New York and New Jersey handled 585,864 TEUs in January 2018, surpassing the previous monthly record set in January 2017 by 13.2 percent, according to the most recent data from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ). The January cargo volumes were also the fifth highest of any month in port history, according to PANYNJ. Loaded imports soared 18.5 percent to 309,003 TEUs for the month, while loaded exports ticked up 1.7 percent to 112,839 ...

Port of Virginia terminals handled 218,729 TEUs of containerized cargo in February 2018, a decrease of 0.7 percent from the same month a year ago, according to the most recent data from the mid-Atlantic port. Loaded container imports grew 3.6 percent to 100,370 TEUs compared with February 2017, but were offset by a 4.3 percent slide in laden exports to 82,104 TEUs. Inbound empty container volumes plummeted 70.8 percent to 2,099 TEUs for the month, while outbound empty container ...

The Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) on Monday voted to launch an investigation into the liner carrier industry’s practice of assessing detention, demurrage, and per diem charges. The investigation, headed by Commissioner Rebecca Dye, relates to a petition filed in December 2016 by a coalition of shippers, associations and trucking organizations. The petition asked the FMC to adopt a policy to restrict ocean carriers’ ability to assess what the coalition deemed unreasonable de...

The Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) on Monday voted to launch an investigation into the liner carrier industry’s practice of assessing detention, demurrage, and per diem charges. The investigation, headed by Commissioner Rebecca Dye, relates to a petition filed in December 2016 by a coalition of shippers, associations and trucking organizations. The petition asked the FMC to adopt a policy to restrict ocean carriers’ ability to assess what the coalition deemed unreasonable det...

A former international logistics executive with The Home Depot is behind a new technology provider aiming to make drayage operations more efficient at container terminals. The new company, E*DRAY, is headed by Reade Kidd, who previously managed international transportation for the home improvement retailer and also spent time at the global freight forwarder Damco. The concept behind E*DRAY is to provide a neutral platform for the coordination of block stowage on ves...

A group of over 110 associations representing shippers and logistics providers are calling on the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and employers to resume negotiations on a contract extension. A letter sent today to ILA President Harold Daggett and David Adam, the chief executive officer of United States Maritime Alliance, Ltd. (USMX), which represents ILA employers, expressed “deep concern” about the breakdown in contract talks. “Until negotiations br...

Industrial real estate company CenterPoint Properties could begin construction on a logistics complex at the Port of Oakland this summer. CenterPoint Properties said Thursday that it was only awaiting permits to start on the port’s long-anticipated facility, known as the Seaport Logistics Complex, according to the California port. The Port of Oakland called the 440,000-square-foot facility "the linchpin of the port’s future," a distribution hub that will drive addit...

Two congressmen from New Jersey with container terminals in their districts are asking N.J. Gov. Phil Murphy to help revive a program to help replace older, more polluting trucks that serve the Port of New York and New Jersey. The program funded up to half the cost of acquiring trucks with more modern trucks. “In 2010, the port authority announced an ambitious truck replacement program that would have prohibited vehicles not meeting 2007 federal emissions standards ...

Logistec Corp. said it has acquired Houston-based Gulf Stream Marine for $65.7 million. Madeleine Paquin, president and chief executive officer of Montreal-based Logistec, said the deal "will bring together two highly complementary businesses to deliver greater value, service and innovation to customers." Both companies are heavily involved in the handling of breakbulk, bulk and project cargo, as well as containers. Logistec said the purchase will allow...

A record 142.1 million metric tons of cargo moved through Canada's Port of Vancouver in 2017, a 5 percent increase from 2016, the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority revealed Thursday. Both containerized cargo and bulk grain movements hit new highs last year. Overall container traffic increased 11 percent from 2016 to reach 3.3 million TEUs. The port handled 1.7 million TEUs of loaded inbound containers, up 11 percent from 2016, and 1.1 million TEUs of loaded outbound c...

The Port of Virginia today officially launched the first phase of implementation for its new motor carrier appointment system, dubbed the “PRO-PASS Trucker Reservation System (TRS),” in an effort to improve overall cargo efficiency and help the port handle increased volumes. The first phase of the PRO-PASS TRS rollout will take place at Norfolk International Terminals (NIT), which will be followed by Virginia International Gateway (VIG) some time this summer. In thi...

Although President Donald Trump said in his State of the Union address last month that waterways would be a key part of his national infrastructure initiative, Waterways Council, Inc. (WCI) CEO Mike Toohey said Tuesday implementation of the plan would spur more truck and rail shipping, even as barges for inland shipping make the U.S. agriculturally cost-competitive with other countries. Compared with a batch of soybeans shipped to China from Brazil, which utilizes farm-to-market...

North Carolina Ports (NC Ports) has hired Benjamin M. Massa as its new director of carrier and trade development. Massa joins NC Ports from United Arab Agencies, Inc., where he served as commercial director and AVP of sales and marketing. Less-than-truckload (LTL) carrier Dayton Freight Lines, Inc. has named Brian Gratsch vice president of operations for the company’s Region 3 territory. Gratsch, who began his career in 2002 as a dispatcher at the Dayt...

A class-action lawsuit filed against XPO Logistics on Monday claims that the company’s port drayage arm is misclassifying truck drivers as independent contractors. The lawsuit comes less than a week after the Long Beach City Council said it would seek to “support legislation that improves working conditions for port truck drivers.” The lawsuit, filed in Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, Central Division, says that because drivers who perform work ...

DP World said the Djibouti government on Friday illegally seized control of its Doraleh Container Terminal. The Dubai-based terminal operator said it “designed, built and, since 2006, operated the terminal pursuant to a concession awarded by the government in 2006.” DP World holds a 33 percent equity stake in the port, which has a capacity to handle 1.25 million TEUs. Seizure of the terminal under a decree from Djibouti’s president “is the culmination t...

There’s little in this world that’s truly black and white, something shippers, intermediaries and drayage providers may want to bear in mind while they wait for the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission to potentially issue a binding policy on the assessment of detention and demurrage fees in extraordinary circumstances. The FMC held two days’ worth of hearings on the matter in mid-January, a testament to how thoroughly the agency wants to understand the matter, and how multifaceted...

South Carolina Ports Authority’s (SCPA) box volumes in January 2018 tumbled 9.5 percent from 12 months prior to 167,398 TEUs, as throughput of loaded imports and exports, as well as empty containers, had all declined, according to figures released by the port authority. SCPA handled 78,169 TEUs of loaded imports, 59,746 TEUs of loaded exports and 29,484 TEUs of empty containers during the month. Despite the rocky start to the calendar year, SCPA handled 1.24 million...

Third-party provider ITS Logistics has promoted Jamie Lawson to the role of chief financial officer. Lawson joined ITS Logistics in 2014 as controller before being promoted to director of finance. Prior to that, she worked in public accounting for CPA firms in Oklahoma, California and Nevada. Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards has appointed William H. Langenstein, III to the board of commissioners of the Port of New Orleans (Port NOLA) . A tax, corporate a...

U.S. President Donald Trump has reportedly asked Congress to consider a $0.25 increase to the federal gas tax, the primary funding mechanism for the Highway Trust Fund (HTF), as a means of paying for infrastructure investment. Trump floated the idea to senior administration officials and a bipartisan group of lawmakers in a White House meeting on Feb. 15, according to a report from Axios news service, but this wasn’t the first time the president has proposed raising the ga...

Combined container volumes at the ports of Seattle and Tacoma fell 16.7 percent to 250,762 TEUs in January 2018, according to the most recent data from the Northwest Seaport Alliance (NWSA), which runs the ports’ collective marine cargo operations. Total international container throughput stood at 207,638 TEUs for the month, a 16.9 percent decrease from January 2017, as imports dropped 22.7 percent to 107,701 TEUs and export volumes slid 9.6 percent to 99,936 TEUs. ...

Lawmakers from the Virginia House of Representatives have proposed to set aside $350 million in cash and bonds in the state budget for dredging projects at the Port of Norfolk. The Virginia House of Delegates Committee on Appropriations and Senate Finance Committee recently released their respective two-year state budget proposals, both of which contain provisions that would carve out funding for the planning and preliminary engineering to widen and dredge the Norfolk Harbor Cha...

Turkey’s Yilport Holding has ambitions to grow into one of the 10 largest international container terminal operators by 2025, according to a statement issued Tuesday by Robert Yuksel Yildririm, the chairman, president and chief executive officer of Yildirim Group, which also has interests in the metals, mining, fertilizer and chemical industries. The company said that last year, it handled 4.3 million TEUs, 9.5 percent more than in 2016, and ranked as the 13th largest in Dr...

The Port of Savannah handled 338,793 TEUs of containerized cargo in January 2018, a 2.2 percent increase from the same month a year ago, according to the latest data from the Georgia Ports Authority (GPA). The South Atlantic port saw import cargo jump 5.9 percent to 178,249 TEUs - 169,758 laden TEUs and 8,491 empty TEUs - for the month. Export cargo, on the other hand, slipped 1.6 percent year-over-year to 160,544 TEUs - 107,499 full TEUs and 53,045 empty TEUs. &nbs...

The Port Newark Container Terminal (PNCT), one of six container terminals operating within the Port of New York and New Jersey, is entering a new phase of construction in which it plans to increase its annual handling capacity from about 1.5 million TEUs to more than 2 million TEUs. The infrastructure development at PNCT, which is financed with about $300 million in bond proceeds, will boost the terminal’s footprint roughly 17 percent to 308 acres and will include the buildout ...

The Port of Rotterdam’s container throughput surged in 2017, with the port handling 13.7 million TEUs weighing 142.6 million metric tons, up 10.9 percent and 12.3 percent, respectively, from 2016 figures. Including dry and wet bulk cargo, breakbulk and roll-on/roll-off (ro-ro) cargo, the port handled 467 million metric tons of cargo, a 1.3 percent increase from the 461 million metric tons handled in 2016. The increase in containers was offset by a fall in dry bulk o...

The Port of Los Angeles handled 808,728 TEUs of containers in January, 2 percent fewer than in January 2017 when 826,640 TEUs moved across the California port’s docks. "After two consecutive years of record-breaking cargo, it’s encouraging to start 2018 with robust volumes,” said Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka. “It’s only the seventh time we have eclipsed the 800,000-TEU mark in a single month.” The port attributed strong January volumes, in part...

Yilport Holding, the port terminal operator and logistics subsidiary of the Yildirim Group, saw throughput at its container terminals jump 9.5 percent year-over-year to 4.3 million TEUs in 2017, according to the most recent data from the company. Yilport said the growth was driven primarily by strong performances in its 10 container terminal operations in Turkey, Scandinavia, Iberia and Latin America, particularly in Turkey’s growing ocean trade market and in Swedish export carg...

The Port of Long Beach handled 657,830 TEUs of containers in January, 12.9 percent more than in January 2017, and an all-time high for the month, the Southern California port reported. “The pre-Lunar New Year surge is definitely here,” said Port of Long Beach Executive Director Mario Cordero, taking note of the upcoming two-week holiday period in Asia, the port’s primary trading partner. “Since this year’s holiday begins Feb. 16, we anticipated a busy January and February, as ca...

MSC Group has appointed Ammar Kanaan chief executive officer of container port terminals arm Terminal Investment Limited (TiL) , effective April 9, 2018. He succeeds Vikram Sharma , who will retire from his position as CEO of TiL on March 30. Kanaan is the founder and chairman of International Port Management, and also led the development and operations of MSC’s joint venture terminal in King Abdullah Port, Saudi Arabia. Port of Redwood City Executive Director Mic...

Ports covered by the NRF’s Global Port Tracker report handled 20.5 million TEUs of imports in 2017, a year-over-year increase of 7.6 percent. Imports at major retail container ports in the United States are expected to grow 4.9 percent in the first half of 2018, according to the latest monthly Global Port Tracker report by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Hackett Associates. The latest projection from NRF comes as ports covered by the Global Port Tracker report handled ...

West Calcasieu Port in Louisiana will move forward with dredging its west barge basin after the port authority’s board approved a $1.3 million dredge contract with Coastal Dredging Co. of Hammond, La. The contract was the cheapest among six bids received by the port. Dick Kennison, board president, said he and the other commissioners were “impressed with the quality of the contractors that were interested in the port's project and spent a considerable amount of time...

China Merchants Port Holdings Co. (CMPort) on Feb. 6 entered into an acquisition agreement under which it is buying a 50 percent interest in Australia’s Port of Newcastle from China Merchants Union Ltd. (CMU) and Gold Newcastle Property Holding Pty Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of CMU, the Hong Kong-based port operator said in a statement. Under the deal, CMPort or its wholly-owned subsidiaries will pay $607.5 million Australian (U.S. $473.8 million), including shareholder loa...

The Port of Brownsville, a Gulf of Mexico seaport located at the southernmost tip of Texas, set a record recently when it received the m/v Nordic Pollux , the largest vessel to ever call on the port to date. The crude oil tanker, which weighs in at 150,103 deadweight tons (dwt), has a length of 274.2 meters (almost 900 feet) and a breadth of 48 meters (157 feet). It was built in 2003 and flies under the flag of the Cayman Islands. The tanker made its way from Phila...

Managing members of the Northwest Seaport Alliance (NWSA), a marine cargo operating partnership of the ports of Tacoma and Seattle, voted Tuesday to update the Clean Truck Program, requiring trucks, as of April 1, to either have a 2007 or newer engine or equivalent retrofit, or receive a pass that allows access to the international container terminals until owners receive compliant trucks - no later than Dec. 31, 2018, the NWSA said. In addition, the plan states that the 2...

Source: Pressmaster/Shutterstock SEKO Logistics appoints vice president of global airfreight, Port Tampa Bay hires VP of finance, and Evans Distribution Systems name IT director. SEKO Logistics has appointed Shawn Richard to the newly-created role of vice president of global airfreight. A 30-year logistics industry veteran, Richard most recently served as chief operating officer at Worldnet Shipping USA and as northeast regional sales manager for Delta Airlines Cargo. He will ...